News

Casey Kasem's wife loses custody of legendary D.J.

Compiled by Tony Hicks

Contra Costa Times

Posted:
06/02/2014 10:05:14 AM PDT

Updated:
06/02/2014 03:40:48 PM PDT

Legendary radio personality Casey Kasem was taken Sunday to a Washington State hospital, after his 59-year-old wife threw a pound of raw hamburger meat at Kasem's daughter as she was following a judge's order to take over the care of her 82-year-old father, who is suffering from various health problems, including dementia.

That's right -- hamburger meat. Maybe she thought a W.A.S.P. concert broke out or something.

Google that and get back to me.

NBC News reported Kasem was taken by stretcher from a home where he's been staying in Kips County, Wash., to a waiting ambulance.

As sheriff's deputies looked on, Jean yelled at Kasem's daughter, Kerri Kasem. The incident came two days after a Washington judge upheld a Los Angeles judge's decision last month to give 41-year-old Kerri control of her father's medical care.

In this Oct. 27, 2003, file photo, Casey Kasem poses for photographers after receiving the Radio Icon award during The 2003 Radio Music Awards in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Eric Jamison, File)

Jean Kasem -- who married the longtime DJ and voice-over artist (think Shaggy in "Scooby-Doo") in 1980 -- has battled her stepchildren for months over her refusal to allow them to visit their father. Last month, Kasem went missing for a few days until news broke that Jean removed him from a nursing home in Santa Monica and took him to Washington without telling his family.

As the drama unfolded Sunday, Jean told NBC News, "In the name of King David, I threw a piece of raw meat into the street in exchange for my husband to the wild rabid dogs."

Oh, well, there's that.

According to the New York Daily News, Kerri Kasem testified at a hearing last week that her father developed bed sores and infections in his lungs and bladder while in Washington.

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"Kerri was just very, very upset because her dad's health had declined so much since she ... saw him on May 6," Casey Kasem's sister, Mary Kasem, of Michigan, told NBC News. "He just went backwards. It broke my heart."

On Friday, Jean Kasem played a cellphone recording she said was her husband protesting the court's decision to turn control of his medical care in the hands of his daughter from a previous marriage, according to the Daily News.

"He's crying," said Jean Kasem, adding her husband suffers from a rare form of dementia called Lewy Body Dementia.

Jean said the courts were trying to "rip him away from his family."

"He wanted to go out strong ... he wanted to leave beautiful memories," she said. "That's all gone."